My four year old is crazy about dinosaurs and wanted me to make him a dino themed quilt. I love "painting" a picture with applique and put together a simple tableau of what I wanted to look like a valley with dinosaurs. I am happy with how it has turned out and, more importantly, so is he, but it is time to quilt it and I am not sure how to go about it. I was going to quilt it by hand but my rheumatoid arthritis makes that slow going.

I have never machine quilted anything other than pot holders, but I think it is do-able since it is a smaller quilt. I actually found this site researching machine quilting!

I was going to outline quilt the dinosaurs and shrubbery, etc...and create texture by filling in any larger areas with meandering lines, but I am not sure I can do that on a machine.

I embellished a lot of the applique with embroidery, but I also have to do that over time so I don't kill my hands.

I would love to see pictures of some applique projects that others have finished to give me ideas and any helpful tips on machine quilting.

I'll take a picture of my project, too....

Blessings!

It is doable. Just take your time and practice on smaller quilt sandwiches to get your stitching even. Can't wait to see the quilt.
Sue

Thanks for the encouragement, Sue. I basted it together but have read posts where people mention "spray". I am assuming it is a product that you can use in place of basting, though I have not researched it yet.

Would that make for less slippage?

I use a glue stick to hold down my applique but I also just bought steam a seam light to try. I have not done many but on the ones that I have done I did raw edge and used Fray check on the edges. I washed and dried...and they look fine. good luck...post pictures.

using spray is better when machine quilting because if you sew over your basting stiches it be comes very hard to take them out again.